This volume examines one health issue — breast implants — across a series of contexts often thought to be separate — media coverage, doctor-patient interaction, doctor-doctor professional communication, support group dialogues, public relations campaigns, and more. In so doing, it provides a narrative of how communication shapes the individual perceptions of health, government, and social policy concerning health care. At the core of the silicone breast implant controversy is the need for people to act amid uncertainty about the health risks involved. This need to weigh action in the midst of uncertain risk characterizes a large number of health issues. The attempts of patients, physicians, drug manufacturers, and others to seek and provide both information and influence makes communication central to these issues. Consequently, the questions explored in this volume will interest a diverse group of readers. This audience includes plastic surgeons in particular, physicians in general, and anyone involved with women’s health issues. As the medical profession struggles with its identity amid changes in public attitudes, government regulations, and medical practices, this volume’s findings concerning media portrayals of doctors and medical devices become even more important. Finally, this study reveals how interrelated public information and private decisions are, and how closely media and interpersonal relationships fit. Tracing one medical issue across interpersonal, organizational, public relations, and mediated forums has clearly demonstrated the multiple ways those communication channels overlap and inform one another.

Download Silicone Survivors – Susan M. Zimmermann pdf
Susan Zimmermann talked with forty women about perhaps one of the most sensitive issues of body image and health - their breasts, the chief attribute of femininity. In the aftermath of the early 1990's controversy over the use of silicone breast implants, how do women decide to […]

Download Science on Trial – Marcia Angell pdf
In the early 1990s, sympathetic juries awarded huge damages to women claiming injury from silicone breast implants, leading to a $4.25 billion class-action settlement that still wasn't large enough to cover all the claims. Shockingly, rigorous scientific studies of breast implants […]

Download Cleavage – Nora Jacobson pdf
Women's breasts have been idealized as symbols of femininity and motherhood. They have held great social and psychological significance as objects drawing intrusive gazes, and as images of self worth to be measured against an idealized form. It is no wonder, then, that a technology […]